Reconfigurable beam-forming-network architecture

Abstract

A beam-forming network having: a plurality (NI) of input signal ports (IP); a plurality (NO) of output signal ports (OP); a weighting and interconnecting network (WIN) comprising a plurality of signal dividers (SD), phase and amplitude weighting elements (WE), switches (SW1, SW2) and signal combiners (SC), for associating each input port to output ports through respective weighting units; wherein either input (IP) or output (OP) ports, or both, are partitioned into disjoint equivalence classes (IEC, OEC), at least a majority of said equivalence classes having more than one port; and in that the network is either configured in order to associate each input port to at most one output port for each output equivalence class, or to associate each output port to at most one input port for each input equivalence class, or both. Also provide is a multibeam antenna comprising having such a beam-forming network, and an electronic circuit for implementing such a beam-forming network.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The invention relates to a reconfigurable beam-forming network, to an electronic circuit implementing it and to a multibeam array antenna comprising such a beam-forming network.[0002]The invention applies in particular to the fields of satellite communications, remote sensing and global navigation systems.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]A Beam Forming Network (BFN) constitutes the heart of any array antenna system, i.e. of any antenna system relaying on a set of radiating elements to generate one or more beams. It plays an essential role in different antenna architectures ranging from direct radiating arrays (DRAs) to the vast set of Array-Fed Reflector (AFR) antennas, including Semi-Active Multi-Matrix, Imaging or others configurations.[0004]More specifically, a Beam Forming Network performs the functions of:[0005]in an emitting antenna array, focusing the energy radiated by an array along one or more predetermined directions in space by opportunely pha...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0024]An aim of the invention is to provide an efficient, modular and scalable design solution for reconfigurable BFNs capable of supporting various multi-beam configurations.

[0025]Another aim of the invention is to provide a reconfigurable BFN architecture which can be easily adapted to several possible antenna architectures.

[0026]Still another aim of the invention is to provide a reconfigurable BFN architecture which can be used both in transmission and in reception, even in the case of digital implementation.

Problems solved by technology

Telecommunication satellites have an ever-increasing operational lifespan, and business conditions are subject to unpredictable changes.

The main limitation of this BFN is its lack of reconfigurability.

The complexity of such a network would make it impractical for many applications: simpler solutions retaining sufficient (although not complete) flexibility are therefore necessary.

The complexity saving provided by these solutions is, however, insufficient for many applications, particularly in the field of telecommunications.

An additional drawback of the prior art architectures is that the digital implementations of transmit and receive BFN may be drastically different from each other: this is due to the fact that digital signal dividers and combiners, unlike their analog counterparts, are intrinsically non-reciprocal devices and have completely different structures and implementations.

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